Where should I settle?

[FlyinJohnnyL]

I'm trying to improve my initial settlement strategies, and I rolled this map. I've already moved the warrior, so what you see is what you get.

My thoughts: Two weak food resources and a pretty good one (it can't be irrigated yet). My initial move was to move the settler 1 N so I get the extra hammer in the city tile, include all 3 food resources, as well as the two unforested tiles (something may pop there, though I doubt it with how many specials are already showing.) 1 W is also not bad as you still get the bonus hammer, but who knows what the heck is in the fog. Then the other option to me is 1 NW so you grab both the cow and the gold. No bonus hammer in the city tile though.

 

[Izuul]

1N and 1W are really the two choices. The only thing 1W really gives is an earlier gold mine. That's good, but the capitol would be pretty food poor. 1N of corn has a pretty good chance of being a strategic resource and 1W doesn't claim that tile or the cows.

Either location has a chance of killing seafood. Only SIP would save seafood, but i don't think the potential of seafood is worth a SIP.

I think i prefer 1N and teching AG > AH > BW. 2nd city can probably grab the gold and share cows with the capitol.

Where did the warrior start? 1S of cows? I think it's generally better to post your starting pic before moving the unit when asking for settling advice. If your warrior was 1S of cows you didn't have many good options though.

Edit: 1NW isn't bad either. It does lose the PH hammer, but gold + cows + corn is good. Tile sharing looks a bit more difficult though as settling a 2nd city over by the corn looks rather weak unless there's fish or something over there.

 

[krikav]

Good thoughts.
I would want to settle 1N too i think. But I would worry about ruining seafood.

 

[AcaMetis]

With two grains and Cow nearby there's no need to worry about moving away from the river, since you'll have plenty of health early game even without fresh water. I'd say settle the PH 1W so you can put a second city on the PH 1W of Cows later, and possibly a city 1N of dry rice after that, depending on the situation RE: Scouting information and neighbours. 1N would make it impossible to share the Corn/Rice and the Gold might not have any other food to the W/SW to work it.

 

[Izuul]

I think it also depends a little on the difficulty and such. I value capitol worker and settler production a lot more now than i used to and PH settle + cows + corn is going to be strong for both. Gold is great but in terms of getting settlers and workers out its the same as a forest tile. I think 2nd city gold is generally fine.

 

[lymond]

1N definitely

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Where did the warrior start? 1S of cows? I think it's generally better to post your starting pic before moving the unit when asking for settling advice..

My apologies about that. It was actually the warrior move that really made me start contemplating what I needed to do. I moved the warrior SE I believe, so he could stand on the hill and reveal more relevant tiles.

Regarding difficulty-this is emperor. After years of not playing I jumped back in at Monarch, won a couple of games, and I think I'm ready to move up.

Also, thank you for the responses! When I first started playing this game I was 25 and now I'm nearly 40. I still have a head full of hair but it's a lot whiter than it used to be, lol!

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Also, I just now noticed it looks as though there is another land tile NE of the rice, so potential seafood may be safe even with a move 1 N. Then again it kinda looks like a peak tile to me...

 

[elmurcis]

No Fish? Mehh... would regenerate until getting real Sushi style start (just kidding happy civving )

 

[Fippy]

It's Wang righto?
I'd settle 1w, teching AH before BW would annoy me with so many forests, starting techs are not too good with myst.
Gold fixes those problems (used to high costs on deity, needs to be considered when i give out opinions ),
and i would be happy with chopping everything out at probably size 3 (mining the green river hill as 3rd tile later).

Acametis imo makes good points about leaving some settling spots open as well.

 

[Izuul]

That is true. BW + lots of forests can make up for any lack in raw production.

 

[AcaMetis]

Didn't see the grass hill(?) 1NE of the rice, that does ease the food sharing situation a bit if you settle 1N. I don't see a way to settle a second city that can share the gold and cow in that situation, though, 1N of the gold looks like coast to me. It'd also make it awkward to settle the gold, potentially, since it'd be in the capitol's third ring. So if there's food 3S of the gold you'd need to settle around 2S to grab the food, and than build a monument/wait for a border pop in that city or wait for the capitol's third ring to grab the gold.

 

[Izuul]

That's funny. On this monitor 1N of gold clearly looks like water. On my work monitor i couldn't see that. I don't like 1N if a cow + gold 2nd city isn't possible.

 

[drewisfat]

We're guaranteed a third resource at starting position right?
That would mean 1W loses you a resource anyway you slice it, either seafood and/or whatever is 1 north of corn.
1 North gains you cows and a 2 hammer capital at the cost of a turn, a forest and being coastal, so you lose out on the small chance of seafood but maintain the larger chance of resource north of corn. Also removes the potential of settling 2nd city 1 west of cows.
As Fippy said, the cows might be more than we need though. Wang starts with mining and myst, so AH is a big deviation from a start that otherwise begs for early BW. And we probably would want that cow worked by our 2nd city long-term.
What's the map settings? Would affect how important coastal is.

If there is water 1N of gold then I'll be the first noob to say SIP or scout for a turn. I don't like to rule out things like GLH on turn 0 if it seems like a wet map. Also trade routes, sailing, yadda yadda. Coastal tiles aren't totally pointless with Fin and I don't see any rivers.

 

[AcaMetis]

...Are we? Though even if so, couldn't that third resource be something like Aluminium on the 1W PH itself?

 

[Izuul]

I think you are guaranteed 3 although i believe FPs count as 1/2 so you can have 2 + 2 FPs (clearly not the case here). 1W could be the resource though in which case you would just be settling on it obviously.

 

[Fippy]

1 strategic resi is guaranteed, but that can also be Alu, Uranium or Coal.
I think an empty plains tile can only be Uranium out of those, so you could have either Copper, Iron, Horsies or Uranium (?) there.